laughter

See Also: GAIETY, GRINS, HUMOR, SMILES

1. As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool —The Holy Bible/Ecclesiastes
2. Basically when you laugh you have to make a fool of yourself … it’s like sex —Robin Williams, “Sixty Minutes” interview, September 21, 1986
3. Chuckle … it sounded like a trapped wasp —Jonathan Gash
4. Chuckles … empty and round, like bubbles —Dan Jacobson
5. Chuckling like a jovial insurance salesman —James Crumley
6. Contralto laughter, like a violin obligato under trills of a flute —Carlos Baker
7. A dry crackle like leaves crushed underfoot —Louise Erdrich
8. Dry laughter like the cackle of crows or the crackling of fallen leaves underfoot —Margaret Laurence
9. Giggled … like a naughty child which has unintentionally succeeded in amusing the grown-ups —Christopher Isherwood
10. (They kissed. And) giggled like cartoon mice —Tom Robbins
11. Giggle, like a child watching a Hollywood adventure film —Nadine Gordimer
12. A good laugh is sunshine in a house —William Makepeace Thackeray
13. Heavy, melodious laughter, like silver coins shaking in a bag —Aharon Megged
14. Her braying laugh rang out like the report of a shotgun —James Thurber
15. Her laugh broke like a dish —Cynthia Ozick
16. Her laugh crackled … like a leap of electricity —Richard Francis
17. Her laugh pealed out like a raven escaping into the night —Donald McCaig
18. Her laugh rang like the jangling of bracelets —Derek Walcott
19. Her laughter hung in the air like sleigh bells on a winter night —Jay Parini
20. Her laughter was a titanic, passionate thing that seemed to pass up like a wave from her toes to her mouth —Pat Conroy
21. High laugh, like a dove cry —Eudora Welty
22. A high laugh like a wicked witch —Carolyn Chute
23. His laughter thickened like a droning bell —James Wright
24. A hoarse, very small laugh, like a cat’s cough —Frank Swinnerton
25. A horrifying derisive laugh, like rolling tin —Barry Hannah
26. Laugh … as if a demon within him were exulting with gloating scorn —Iris Murdoch
27. (Louisa’s) laugh begins high and descends from there like a cascade —Daphne Merkin
28. Laughed, a little drugged giggle, like chatter —Paul Theroux
29. Laughed contemptuously like a whore being offered too little money —Gary Hart
30. Laughed, like a bowlful of jelly —Clement C. Moore
31. Laughed like a windup machine —John D. MacDonald
32. Laughed like monkeys —Richard Ford
33. Laughed like murmurs of the sea —W. B. Yeats
34. Laughed … like the trill of a hedge-warbler —Frank Swinnerton
35. A laugh exploded out of me like a sneeze —Scott Spencer
36. Laughing, a sound like wind in the grass —T. Coraghessan Boyle
37. A laugh is just like sunshine —Anon rhyme

    The simile is the poem’s repeat motif.

38. Laugh … like the barking of a fox —Erich Maria Remarque
39. Laugh … like a bird’s carol on the sunrise breeze —John Greenleaf Whittier
40. Laugh like a hyena —William Shakespeare

    This simile from As You Like It crops up in many a modern short story and novel.

41. Laugh … like a spoon tinkling against a medicine glass —Katherine Mansfield
42. Laugh … like a thrush singing —Oscar Wilde
43. A laugh like clapboards being ripped off the side of a house —Peter De Vries
44. Laughs [in a film] … come out of despair, like bits of green in a graveyard —Walter Goodman about the movie, No Surrender, New York Times, August 6, 1986
45. Laughs like a rhinoceros —Tom Davies

    The person Davies described was Samuel Johnson.

46. Laughs like little bells in light wind —George Garrett
47. Laughter … checked by small clutches of muscle, like tiny fists, at the corners of his mouth —Leonard Michaels
48. Laughter crackling like a schoolgirl who has not experienced enough of the world to fear it —Ira Wood
49. Laughter cruel as barbed wire —George Garrett
50. Laughter falls like rain or tears —Dame Edith Sitwell
51. Laughter fell like a shower of coins —George Garrett
52. Laughter … high and free and musical, like a happy soprano limbering up —Harvey Swados
53. Laughter hung smoke-like in the sudden stillness —Ralph Ellison
54. Laughter … keeps coming like a poison that must be ejected —Nora Johnson
55. Laughter leaped suddenly from her throat … then stopped, like something flung away and lost —Graham Swift
56. Laughter like hiccoughs —T. Coraghessan Boyle
57. Laughter, light and restrained like the clatter of rolling nuts —Yisrael Zarchi
58. Laughter lonelier than tears —Anonymous blurb preceding a humorous quote, New York Times Book Review/Noted With Pleasure, September 14, 1986
59. The laughter of a fool is like that of a horse —Welsh proverb

    See Also: FOOLISHNESS, STUPIDITY

60. Laughter roared through the spectators like wind through trees —Gerald Kersh
61. Laughter spilled out of his prodigious frame like gravel being unloaded from a dump truck —Pat Conroy
62. A laugh that rippled … like the sound of a hidden brook —O. Henry
63. A laugh that rumbles like a freight train in the night —Michael Goodwin about sports broadcaster, Steve Zabriskie, New York Times/TV Sports, October 2, 1986
64. A laugh that unfolds like a head of lettuce —Antler
65. Let out a cackle of a laugh, like the sound a hen might make if the hen were mad about something —Larry McMurtry
66. Men who never laugh may have good hearts, but they are deep seated; like some springs, they have their inlet and outlet from below, and show no sparkling bubble on the brim —Josh Billings

    Words originally in Billings’ phonetic dialect are: ‘laff (laugh), ‘hav’ (have), ‘sum’ (some).

67. A most pleasant laugh, bubbly and controlled, like fine champagne —Margaret Millar
68. Peal of laughter like the ringing of silvery bells —Nathanial Hawthorne
69. A queer stage laugh, like the cackle of a baffled villain in a melodrama —Edith Wharton
70. (Boutin’s mouth opened from ear to ear in) a roar of laughter, like the bursting of a mortar —Honoré de Balzac
71. She laughed, sounding like a small barking dog —Robert Campbell
72. She pursed her lips each time she laughed, making laughter seem a gesture of self-control —W. P. Kinsella
73. A silvery laugh, like a brook running out to meet the river —Mike Fredman
74. A slow ripple of laughter, like a scattering of autumn leaves —Robert Traver
75. A snort of a chuckle like a bull-frog —Lawrence Durrell
76. Some … laugh just as a rat does, who has caught a steel trap, with his tail —Josh Billings

    In the original phonetic dialect this is: “Laff just az a rat duz, who haz caught a steel trap with his tale.”

77. The sound [of laughter] was like the whirring of an old grandfather clock before it strikes —Frank Swinnerton
78. Stopped laughing as suddenly as if a set ring had been broken —Loren D. Estleman
79. A sudden fizz of laughter like soda water —George Garrett
80. Tittering like a small bird —Beryl Markham
81. Twinkled like Old King Cole —Donald McCaig
82. When he laughed, a satyr-like quality suffused his face —Nathaniel Benchley
83. When she does laugh … it’s like polished crystal, like a stream in the Alps racing over a pebbly bed here below, like … like another simile —Hanoch Bartov

    For anyone interested in multiple similes … here’s the simile itself to round up a medley of comparisons.

84. When she laughed it was as if a wren sang —Frank Swinnerton
85. When she was about to laugh, her tone grew higher and melodious, easing into the laugh like a singer easing from recitative to an aria —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
86. Wrinkles of laughter leaped into sight on his face, like small friendly insects running all over it —Romain Gary